Following up the "Need for a Cape" thread: The Ultimate Cloak and the coinage its wearer inspired
1northcoin
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Keets fun thread on the subject of Cape Empowerment reminded of a most unique Cloak that was once worn by the Super Power of Hawaii - King Kamehameha who was responsible for uniting all of the islands of Hawaii under his rule.
First the numismatic take:
"King Kamehameha I served as first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Although numerous dates have been offered, the accepted year of his birth was around 1736. His mother was the niece of the usurping ruler of Hawaii at that time and he was adopted as his infant son and heir. King Kamehameha I was the first ruler to recognize the value of gold and silver coinage as money. One of his sons, King Kamehameha III, who succeeded him, wanted to establish a local coinage as opposed to using foreign coinage.
Kamehameha III established a monetary system for use in Hawaii and he tied it to the US dollar and coinage. He created a “Keneta”—a one cent coin much like a US large cent. The King’s plan was to have a large quantity of this low denomination coin minted and once they were acceptable to the Hawaiian population to introduce several larger denominations.
The Keneta is roughly the same diameter as the Large Cent. The obverse bears a military bust of the king on the obverse, facing front, with the legend “KAMEHAMEHA III. KA MOI.” around him and the date “1847” below. The reverse has the denomination “HAPA HANERI” within a wreath, tied with a bow at bottom, surrounded by “AUPUNI HAWAII.” There are two different obverse varieties—one with a Plain 4 in the date, and the other has a Crosslet 4. There are also six separate varieties of reverse dies."
Next, "The Cloak"
Called an 'ahu 'ula translated as "feather cloak" the below pictured cloak as I photographed it in Oahu's Bishop Museum was reportedly the most precious physical possession owned by King Kamehameha. It took 60,000 mamo birds contributing half a million rare yellow feathers to make it.
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Also pictured , the Hawaiian Coinage from the Bishop Museum to include the first from 1847 and depicting the bust of King Kamehameha's son, Kamehameha III :
Comments
Keeping with the Hawaii theme, here is the Cape Cloak I wore on a segment of Hawaii Five-O - although not sure I can claim it empowered me beyond getting to be a part of the show.
And connecting King Kamehameha and Hawaii Five-0 together, here is my photo of what viewers of the show will recognize as the stand-in location for The Hawaii Five-0 Task Force Headquarters which has the statue of King Kamehameha prominently positioned in front:
@1northcoin.... Thank you for that interesting bit of Hawaiian history... cape and coins... When I used to attend hobby shows (all sorts of stuff) and flea markets, I often overheard people asking if vendors had any Hawaiian coins... Seems there is quite a collecting segment out there. Cheers, RickO
Very interesting, thank you for posting. I'm thinking of adding at least one Hawaiian coin to my rather extended type set.
I note that the mamo bird is extinct, no wonder.
Neat.
Here's a picture of the moon I took night before last.
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Thanks for the added information confirming that the mamo bird is extinct.